


Getting it right

by Beleriandings



Series: Just this once (everybody lives) [4]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28035510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: (AU: Just this once)A moment shared in the middle of the night while Ianto recovers in hospital, and Jack waits by his bedside.
Relationships: Gray (Torchwood) & Jack Harkness, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Series: Just this once (everybody lives) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826248
Comments: 23
Kudos: 37





	Getting it right

**Author's Note:**

> A short missing scene from between chapters 22 and 23 of Just this once.

"Jack...?"

He turned, seeing the figure peering through the parted curtains and expecting one of the nurses on their rounds of the ward. He smiled as he recognised his brother instead, gesturing to the other chair. "Gray. Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Couldn't sleep much" admitted Gray, sitting down on the plastic chair beside him. "Um, I can go, if-"

"No" said Jack. "Stay. I feel like I've hardly seen you, since..."

Gray smiled, nodded silently, acknowledging.

Jack watched his eyes travel over Ianto's sleeping form on the bed, lingering for a moment on Jack's hand clasped over Ianto's. Gray nodded to the bed. "How is he?"

"Improving" said Jack, thumb running across the back of Ianto's hand, careful not to snag the IV needle in his wrist on the sheet. "It was touch and go early on, he had a rough time of it and probably will for a while. But I'm told the worst is over. Hopefully." Jack smiled gently. "What he needs now is to rest and recover."

"...I don't want to disturb-" began Gray, but Jack shook his head.

"With the medication he'll sleep through the night. And probably most of tomorrow too. You're fine, you won't wake him if you want to talk." He smiled, leaving open the invitation, but making it clear that he wouldn't be moving from Ianto's bedside for the moment.

"Not much to talk about" admitted Gray. "I just wanted to see you. ...And Ianto."

Jack smiled. "Well, here we are." Even to his own ears, that _we_ had a certain tone to it.

"...You love him" said Gray. It was not a question.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." He rubbed his thumb over the back of Ianto's hand gently again. "I'm gonna do right by him, Gray" he said. "I've tried before, tried to do this properly. But I got it wrong, I still kept too much back. It's always been like that, ever since I got stuck here, in this time. Stuck, but never quite living in the moment, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I've hurt so many people that way. But not this time. This time... this time, I'm gonna get it right."

Gray reached out very tentatively, laying his hand on Jack's shoulder without saying anything. Jack smiled, lit by the dim glow of the machine lights, bringing his other hand up to lay on top of Gray's on his shoulder.

And there they sat, keeping watch by Ianto's bedside with their hands joined together, until the cracks in the blinds began to glow with the pale light of a new morning.


End file.
